I received a SmartBoard for my classroom three years ago. The year prior I experienced minimal interaction with an interactive board once a day when I traveled to a different classroom to teach six grade math. I found the options of the interactive board endless and engaging.

I began creating daily lessons utilizing the Notebook software to enhance daily lessons. I learned to use interactive tools found in the gallery and inserted links and screenshots of websites addressing the concept of study. Along with the Notebook software, I displayed other programs such as videos through Unitedstreaming , locations using GoogleEarth , and presentations using Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.

SmartBoard Lesson Examples:

Using the SmartBoard:
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Sample SmartBoard Lessons:

Daily Morning Message


Grandparents' Day - Math Lesson
Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert


Social Studies Lesson
U.S. Study of the Northeast Region


Spelling Lesson
Adapted PPT shared on-line



Reading Lesson
Investigation Language in the Hoot by Carl Hiaasen


Language Arts Lesson
Idioms Intro - Online Partner Activity


WordMasters Lesson
Exploring Analogies


Math/Poetry Lesson


REFLECTIONS
The first year I had my board I taught primarily math. The interactive board allowed me to bring to life frequently used manipulatives in mathematical explorations and link to interactive websites and gaming experiences related to the skill of study. I found that creating my lessons prior to class shortened class lecturing, allowing more time for discovery learning activities and in-depth discussions. Above I provided a brief list of lessons I've created. Currently, I have several hundred lessons using the Notebook software.

I found that although the background details of my Notebook-created lessons such as the font, color, images, did not necessary increase my student's ability to learn a skill, these details did make a difference in student interest and attention during lessons. In turn, the students who found the lesson more interesting remained more engaged which would ideally increase student learning.

My students have commented before, "You are really good with the Smartboard" or "We use the Smartboard for so many more things this year." They did not realize that these statements encouraged me to continue spending extra time learning the options of the software and abilities of the Smartboard so that I could continue to captivate them as my audience to instill in them the concepts under study.